Under one person: I, Zhang Zhiwei, the arrogant Zhang.

At this moment, Ah Xing was kneeling alone in front of the huge statue of the god in Tiantong Cathedral, his hands clasped together, his head bowed in silent prayer.

Previously, he knew nothing about his parents and had no thoughts about them. Like many orphans, he even stubbornly believed that he had been heartlessly abandoned by his parents.

This idea, like a thorn, stuck in his heart, making him cynical and indifferent to everything.

But now he knows. He wasn't abandoned. He had a loving father and a loving mother. They were simply separated by an accident.

Once this thought arose, it burned fiercely in his heart like a wildfire. He wanted to find them, he desperately wanted to find them!

No one can understand how luxurious and unattainable the word "family affection" is for an orphan who has been homeless and destitute since childhood, enduring countless scornful looks and loneliness.

But where should he look?
Although he remembered what his parents looked like, it was a vague impression from more than ten years ago. He didn't know their names, let alone their whereabouts.

In this chaotic world of war and where human life is cheap, he didn't even know... whether they were still alive.

The moment this thought arose, he felt as if he had been stabbed in the heart, the pain so intense that he could barely breathe.

The only hope seemed to lie in that all-powerful "leader".

"Master..." Ah Xing prayed silently in his heart. He felt that since his master could make him remember his parents' appearance in his dreams, he must also know their whereabouts and could give him some clues.

So he knelt there, facing the statue of the god, praying in his heart again and again.

Just then, a sharp whooshing sound came from outside the church, followed by exclamations and reprimands from some of the church's apologists.

"Stop! Who is it?!"

"This is the Heavenly Church! Trespassing is prohibited!"

The voice came from a member of the guardian team. Ah Xing recognized it and, thinking that he was now the "Great Protector" and their leader, felt it was his duty to go and check on them.

Although he was extremely eager to find his parents, he did not forget his duty.

He had just turned around and was about to get up when he heard a loud "boom"!
The two heavy oak doors of the Tiantong Cathedral were smashed open in an extremely rude manner!
Two figures, one fat and one thin, rushed in at an extremely fast speed, bringing with them a gust of wind that made the candlelight in the church flicker.

When Ah Xing saw the two intruders, he was immediately stunned.

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely at this moment.

Although he has aged considerably and become much more worn out, with the marks of time etched on his face, the voice and smile deeply engraved in his soul remain as clear as yesterday!
In Ah Xing's mind, the youthful faces of his parents in his memory and the two anxious faces in front of him slowly and seamlessly overlapped!
Ah Xing felt his breath catch in his throat, and his vision instantly blurred.

This...this is...

His parents?

The landlord and landlady, who rushed in, also saw the young man looking at them with tears streaming down his face in front of the statue.

From Pig Cage Alley to here, they pushed their speed to the limits they had never reached before. Their minds were blank, with only one thought in mind.

Their son! Their son is still alive!

They rushed into the main hall, and then they saw it.

I saw the young man kneeling alone in front of the statue.

The moment they saw him, the landlord and landlady's frantic running steps came to an abrupt halt, as if frozen in place.

For a moment, I felt lost and at a loss, not knowing what to say.

The unfamiliar young man had a slick and roguish air about him, typical of a commoner, but his eyes held a weariness beyond his years, clearly indicating that he had suffered a lot.

Most importantly, they couldn't connect him with the little boy they remembered.

We've missed so many years... The landlady's body began to tremble.

Her lips trembled as she tried to say something, but no sound came out; only large tears streamed down her face.

The landlord stared intently at Ah Xing, his hands clenched into fists, his nails digging deep into his flesh, as if trying to determine if he was dreaming.

The church was deathly silent.

The three of them stood silently gazing at each other.

"What a courage!"

"How dare you trespass here!"

Just then, more than a dozen guards rushed in from outside. Seeing the broken door and the two unfamiliar intruders, they were furious and were about to attack the landlord and landlady.

"stop!"

Upon hearing this, all the guardians were taken aback and looked at their "Great Protector".

Ah Xing pointed at the landlord and landlady, and as if using all his strength, squeezed out a few words from his throat:
"They...they...are my parents..."

"boom!"

These two words, like a thunderclap, exploded in everyone's ears.

The landlady could no longer control herself. She let out a mournful cry and stumbled toward Ah Xing.

The family of three embraced each other in the solemn church, weeping bitterly as they poured out all the pain of more than a decade of separation into tears of reunion.

The surrounding staff looked at each other in bewilderment at the scene before them. Then, they silently withdrew, leaving the long-lost family alone.

...After a long while, the three of them calmed down a bit. Then, the family of three returned to Pig Cage Alley to thank the little celestial master who had brought their family together.

On the way back, Ah Xing also learned some things about Zhang Zhiwei from the landlady and the landlord, including the destruction of a fleet in Shanghai.

The Heavenly Master descended from his pedestal and became a human being, but Ah Xing's reverence for him only increased.

When they returned to Pig Cage Alley, Zhang Zhiwei was waiting for them under the alley's signboard.

Ah Xing stared at the tall man in the Taoist robe not far away, unable to reconcile him with the towering, radiant statue from his dream. Yet, when he met the man's gaze, though those eyes seemed unfocused and lifeless, Ah Xing inexplicably sensed boundless light and thunder within them.

He had no more doubts.

"thump!"

Without any hesitation, Ah Xing knelt down and respectfully kowtowed three times to Zhang Zhiwei.

"Disciple A-Xing greets Master!"

This "Master" was uttered without the slightest awkwardness, only with heartfelt respect and gratitude.

Zhang Zhiwei accepted the three bows with composure, then raised his hand slightly, and a gentle force rose from below, helping him up.

"Get up."

Zhang Zhiwei looked at him, then at the landlord and landlady behind him who were also preparing to kneel, and said:
"A family reunion is a great joy, there's no need for such a grand ceremony."

Zhang Zhiwei held the two down. It was a good thing that they were reasonable, but he himself was not a person who followed the rules, nor did he require his disciples to kneel down at the drop of a hat.

"It's just a little effort."

Zhang Zhiwei waved his hand, gesturing for them to sit down, and then said to A Xing, "Now that you have joined my sect, you should diligently cultivate, help the weak and punish the strong, and not waste your talent, nor forget your original aspirations."

"Yes! Master!"

Ah Xing nodded emphatically, his eyes shining with an unprecedented determination: "Disciple will certainly remember Master's teachings!"

“I am a Taoist priest, but you may not necessarily follow this path in the future, so I will not formally accept you as my disciple. You can be a disciple in name only for now. But don’t worry, I will teach you everything I need to know,” Zhang Zhiwei said.

Upon hearing this, the landlord and landlady exchanged a glance, both revealing expressions of immense excitement. To be accepted as a disciple by a divine figure like the Little Celestial Master, even if only on a nominal basis, was an immense blessing for their son! They were genuinely happy for their child.

After the formal apprenticeship ceremony, Zhang Zhiwei proposed to take Ah Xing on a training program for a period of time.

The landlord and landlady naturally had no objections and handed their son over to Zhang Zhiwei with great gratitude.

However, Zhang Zhiwei's so-called spiritual practice was far beyond A-Xing's expectations.

He didn't take Ah Xing to any famous mountains or rivers, nor did he teach him any earth-shattering divine skills. Instead, he took him to a deserted farmland on the outskirts of Shanghai.

"Master... Master, what are we doing here?" Ah Xing looked at the overgrown fields in front of him with a puzzled expression.

"Doing farm work," Zhang Zhiwei said succinctly.

"Do...do farm work?" Ah Xing was completely dumbfounded. He had imagined that cultivation would be like in his dreams, where he could soar to the heavens and dive into the earth, turning rivers and seas upside down. How could he be here to farm?
Zhang Zhiwei seemed to see through his thoughts and said calmly, "I invented the hoeing technique while hoeing the ground. Although you obtained Qi through the hoeing technique, your current state of mind makes it difficult to control your current power. You may even be controlled by the power itself. I will spend a month guiding your mindset so that you can better control your current power."

Ah Xing nodded thoughtfully.

Landlords and landladies are the ones who understand this best.

Both of them were exceptionally talented individuals, especially the landlord, who was originally a disciple of the former Wudang sect leader.

When he was young, he went out to gain experience. During his journey, he met his wife and had a son, but he also lost his son during the same period.

He gained a lot and lost a lot in this experience. From his personal perspective, it cannot be said that it was a failed experience, but from the perspective of his spiritual practice, it was a complete failure.

Because during this ordeal, his mental state collapsed, and he developed a huge obsession. In the decades that followed, his cultivation only involved the accumulation of Qi, but he never made any breakthroughs in his spiritual realm.

Therefore, he understands best what the word "state of mind" represents.

Zhang Zhiwei continued, “I know you’ve suffered a lot in the past, but simply suffering is meaningless. You need to break free from the constraints of your current environment and find its true nature. This is the best way to temper your mind.”

Of course, the best training is to grow in both strength and mindset at the same time, steadily and surely, but Ah Xing's strength improved too quickly.

The next day, he took Ah Xing to the outskirts of Shanghai and started doing farm work, completely putting aside his power and beginning the life of an ordinary person.

When he was an ordinary person, all of this might have been a hardship in life, but after he attained Qi and returned to this kind of life, he saw something else in it.

During this month, Ah Xing has become a genuine old farmer.

He completely forgot about the incredibly powerful Tathagata Palm technique and all the fighting and killing. All he thought about every day was how to make the ground softer and how to water it more evenly.

Sometimes, after finishing his work, he would squat in the fields with a big bowl in his hand, slurping noodles with gusto, just like any other old farmer in the village.

In this return to simplicity in his work, he felt an unprecedented sense of peace and fulfillment.

His immense power, which seemed somewhat superficial due to his talent as a saintly thief, was gradually solidified and refined through his daily, down-to-earth labor.

A month passed quickly.

That day, Zhang Zhiwei looked at Ah Xing, whose skin was tanned dark and whose Qi had become calm and profound, and nodded in satisfaction.

That's about it. To have achieved this result in just one month is already quite remarkable, but it's still a little short. It's like a piece of steel that has been forged millions of times, still needing a final quenching.

Zhang Zhiwei couldn't give him this tempering, but perhaps the great battle a few months later could complete the final tempering for him.

After guiding Ah Xing's mindset and consolidating his foundation, Zhang Zhiwei stayed in Shanghai for a few more days and formally taught him the Golden Light Mantra.

The Golden Light Mantra is different from ordinary cultivation methods. Its transmission is strictly limited. According to the rules, one needs to be ordained before one can practice it.

However, these rules are no longer a constraint for Zhang Zhiwei now, as he has plenty of ways to bypass them.

Aside from the Golden Light Mantra, Zhang Zhiwei didn't teach Ah Xing any other techniques. Trying to do too much at once is counterproductive. With the Golden Light Mantra for defense and the Tathagata Palm for offense, Ah Xing already had more than enough.

During this period, Wang Ai also sold off the light factories that the Tiantong Church had left in Shanghai, along with the land in the Tiantong Church's resettlement area, to American businessmen.

Of course, the resettlement area was said to have been sold, but the American foreigner who bought it was actually a front man for the Tiantong Chamber of Commerce in the United States. He worked for Wang Ai, so it was just a matter of transferring money from one hand to the other.

After all, there are still many impoverished people living in this resettlement area, and 90% of them are believers. If they are sold to those foreigners, wouldn't they be immediately evicted? Wang Ai couldn't bear to part with them.

Having done all this, Zhang Zhiwei knew it was time for him to leave. After giving Ah Xing some instructions, he transformed into lightning and departed from Shanghai. (End of Chapter)